How to better a record like Revolver? Sign off another by the name of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. For many, this is truly the greatest pop and rock music of all time, if not one of the most significant works of art in popular culture from the second half of the twentieth century... After discovering the endless possibilities offered to them in the recording studio, John, Paul, George and Ringo continue their crazy musical experiments. More than ever considered as the ‘fifth Beatle’, producer George Martin runs out a magic carpet of discoveries that would go on to influence the future of pop. When this eighth studio album is released in June 1967, the era is one that has embraced the all-out psychedelic, and this concept album is a true hallucinatory trip (not only for Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds). Like the patchwork of his mythical pocket, Sergeant Pepper's journeys through pure pop, manly rock'n'roll, totally trippy sequences (to near worldly scales), retro songs of nursery rhymes, animal noises and even classical music! On the composition side, the duo of Lennon/McCartney is at the top of its game, delivering new songs that are still influential today. © MZ/Qobuz, Translation/BM

International bestselling band The Buena Vista Social Club introduced Son Cubano, the first Afro-Cuban sound, to music lovers across the globe. However, their record was lucky to have ever come into existence at all. This album (which went on to sell over 8 million copies worldwide) was recorded in 1996 at the Egrem studio in Havana and was organised at the very last minute, replacing another session. Initially, the plan was to bring together Cuban and Malian musicians, but it later transpired that the African musicians had not received their visas. The altered project saw Nick Gold, founder of the British label World Circuit, Ry Cooder, the famous American producer and guitarist, and Juan de Marcos González, conductor of the Afro-Cuban All Stars who had just released their first tribute album to the biggest Cuban bands of the 50s, record an album with local musicians⁠—possibly one of the wisest decisions of their career.The record features some of the best Cuban musicians, including bassist Orlando 'Cachaíto' López, trumpeter Manuel 'Guajiro' Mirabal and Barbarito Torres, an expert on the laúd, a small Cuban lute, as well as some veteran singers who came out of retirement to record these tracks. Compay Segundo (89), Pio Leiva (80), Ibrahim Ferrer (69), Omara Portuondo (66) and Eliades Ochoa (50) all gathered around the piano played by Ruben Gonzalez (78), who was also recording another album during this time.Called the Buena Vista Social Club in reference to the famous Havana club where traditional musicians used to meet prior to the 1930s, the album was discreetly released in 1997. Gradually, glowing reviews and positive word-of-mouth attracted the attention of the general public, which was further heightened by the Grammy Award they won that same year. The alchemy between the seasoned vocals, the genius of the musicians and the ever-fresh flavour of these forgotten hits is simply perfect. The result is strikingly authentic, and it’s impossible not to feel the genuine joy felt by these talented and mischievous musicians.In 1998, the original BVSC line-up put on three concerts: two in Amsterdam and one in Carnegie Hall in New York. Wim Wenders, friend of Ry Cooder, was behind the camera during these exceptional performances. He was also behind the recording sessions in Cuba for Ibrahim Ferrer’s first solo album, which was the main source of material for the film Buena Vista Social Club. Released in 1999, this documentary served to cement this short-lived group’s status as legends.For most of these artists, this album marked the start of short, international careers. Compay Segundo and Ruben Gonzalez died in 2003, Ibrahim Ferrer in 2005 and Orlando 'Cachaíto' López in 2009. Some of the original band members continued to tour the world under the name Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club and, in October 2015, they were the first Cuban musicians to be welcomed at the White House following the decline of the relationship between Cuba and the USA, demonstrating the huge cultural importance of this record. © Benjamin Minimum/Qobuz

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of their first album, Sony Music CG has brought together all the WHAM! singles on one disc, with a host of bonus tracks. It could only begin with Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do); the George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley duo’s brassy, bouncy calling card. The original track is followed by 5 re-jigged versions sure to delight fans. Of particular note is the Special US Remix, with its handclaps raising the slider on an already effective original rhythm, which is followed by Young Guns (Go For It), on the back of which WHAM! became a veritable social phenomenon. Relaxed, elegant and gently anti-conformist, the two young men went on to score a string of hits: Bad Boys, with its unforgettable opening synth gimmick, the summery Club Tropicana, and the unmissable Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, a 1984 single that sounds like it came straight out of the Motown catalogue. The number of hits on this compilation is all the more impressive given that WHAM! had a relatively short lifespan, sacrificed in favour of George Michael's phenomenal solo success. Songs like Last Christmas reflect the evolution of George Michael: it is signed by both of WHAM!’s members, but it is Michael alone who carries it on his shoulders. The christmas jingle is presented here in its original version, accompanied by a “Pudding Mix” which features a synthesised bell. As the album is structured chronologically, it ends with the band's least emblematic singles: The Edge of Heaven, Battlestations, and Where Did Your Heart Go?— a cover of the American band Was (Not Was) sung by Michael, on which Ridgeley is simply absent. © Nicolas Magenham/Qobuz

Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter, the two French twenty-something DJs who make up Daft Punk, are relentless dance music aficionados and historians. And unlike many of their contemporaries, their interests don't just lie in the electronic beats that have been rockin' the clubs since the mid-'80s. The two knob-twiddlers are just as well-versed in Giorgio Moroder's Euro-disco grooves, Chic, and the old-school rhythms of Afrika Bambaataa and the Sugarhill Records catalog as they are in the Chicago house and Detroit techno traditions. When they're not assembling catchy-as-hell bits of electro-pop ("Around the World"), throwing down slabs of minimalist funk ("Da Funk"), or marrying Miami bass to Kraftwerk-ian blips ("Oh Yeah"), Homem-Christo and Bangalter try to impart a little knowledge. On "Teachers," they use a Ween-esque distorted vocal line to name-check a broad list of influences who includes Brian Wilson, Dr. Dre, and Armand Van Helden. Their broad focus, utopian determination, and, of course, their way with a beat earn Daft Punk's Homework a well-deserved 'A'.© TiVo

Like everybody else, Lana Del Rey is playing hide-and-seek with quarantine. For her seventh album, the New Yorker based in Los Angeles has opted for hushed intimacy, bedroom melodies and confessional arrangements. With Chemtrails Over the Country Club, her pop is folkier than ever, although the echo and reverb in which her exquisite, sensual and hypnotic voice basks set her high above the clouds. This folk idiom fascinates her to the point that she closes out this record (with some help from Natalie Mering aka Weyes Blood and Zella Day) with a magnificent cover of Joni Mitchell's For Free, taken from her album Ladies of the Canyon (1970). There are also those guitars with an air of the Laurel Canyon 70's scene about them on Not All Who Wander Are Lost, and the equally pure guitar sounds that open Yosemite. As usual, Lana Del Rey takes out her pen to decry the torments of celebrity and the star system, starting with White Dress which opens the album, regretting the good old days when she was a barmaid, unknown and listening to Sun Ra, Kings Of Leon and the White Stripes "when they were white hot". Further on, she offers up more references to the music history as on Breaking Up Slowly (a duet with Nikki Lane) where she addresses the marital storms between those two legends of country music, Tammy Wynette and George Jones. On song after song, this solitary amazon soldiers on, not battling for any particular cause, just doing what is right by her own lights ("Well, I don't care what they think. Drag racing my little red sports car. I'm not unhinged or unhappy, I'm just wild"). Chemtrails Over the Country Club shows above all that she excels in the art of storytelling, wielding her tweezers to fine-tune every detail of her lyrics. At 35, Lana Del Rey has arguably released her freest and most accomplished album. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

How to better a record like Revolver? Sign off another by the name of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. For many, this is truly the greatest pop and rock music of all time, if not one of the most significant works of art in popular culture from the second half of the twentieth century... After discovering the endless possibilities offered to them in the recording studio, John, Paul, George and Ringo continue their crazy musical experiments. More than ever considered as the ‘fifth Beatle’, producer George Martin runs out a magic carpet of discoveries that would go on to influence the future of pop. When this eighth studio album is released in June 1967, the era is one that has embraced the all-out psychedelic, and this concept album is a true hallucinatory trip (not only for Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds). Like the patchwork of his mythical pocket, Sergeant Pepper's journeys through pure pop, manly rock'n'roll, totally trippy sequences (to near worldly scales), retro songs of nursery rhymes, animal noises and even classical music! On the composition side, the duo of Lennon/McCartney is at the top of its game, delivering new songs that are still influential today. © MZ/Qobuz, Translation/BM

Andy Sturmer and Roger Manning created a striking prototype of their musical world-view on Jellyfish's debut album, 1990's Bellybutton, but while that disc's cross-pollination of power pop touchstones and big rock attack sounded truly ambitious, the band upped the ante considerably on 1993's Spilt Milk, which could be roughly described as Jellyfish's SMiLE (or perhaps their Heaven Tonight). After the departure of Jason Falkner and Chris Manning following the long tour in support of Bellybutton, Sturmer and Manning were essentially left alone in the studio to conjure the sounds in their heads, with the generous help of producers Albhy Galuten and Jack Joseph Puig and a few studio musicians (including Jon Brion on guitar). From the striking Beach Boys-influenced vocal arrangements on the opener "Hush" and the pastoral tone poem "Russian Hill" to the fuzz-powered chaos of "All Is Forgiven" and the Queen-meets-Pixies guitar theatrics of "Fan Club," everything on Spilt Milk is conceived and executed on a grand scale, and there's no question that Sturmer and Manning sound like joyous kids left in a toy shop and making splendid use of every plaything at their disposal. If Spilt Milk has a flaw (beyond its drab afterthought of a cover), it's that the album sometimes seems too big for its own good, with every nook and cranny filled with some overdubbed bit of business, occasionally making it hard to hear the songs for the baroque layers of production. But Spilt Milk is a massive balancing act that Jellyfish miraculously pull off; it might seem like a power pop Spruce Goose, but in this case it not only takes off, it flies high as a remarkable experiment in pop-minded rock on the grandest scale.© Mark Deming /TiVo

Released in 1973, three years after the separation of the Beatles, this compilation from 1967-1970 is more commonly known as the The Blue Album and consists of 28 songs that were recorded, as the title indicates, between 1967 and 1970. It is obviously the essential companion of its red twin, The Beatles 1962 - 1966 (The Red Album), and was mastered simultaneously. The anthology of the second period of The Beatles' career can be summed up wonderfully by simply reciting the titles of all the opening tracks (light euphemisms to say the least): Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, A Day In The Life, All You Need Is Love, I Am the Walrus, Magical Mystery Tour, Hey Jude, Back In The USSR, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Here Comes The Sun, Come Together, Let It Be or Across The Universe. Again we listen, open-mouthed, witnessing the musical aftermath of adulthood on the four boys from Liverpool, who were undoubtedly some of the most accomplished musicians on the planet, both in their brilliance and in their imagination. It is fascinating, again and again, to realize that this extensive list of wonderful songs was recorded in just four short years ... © MZ/Qobuz, Translation/BM

Chappell Roan's first studio full-length The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is an absolute breath of fresh air in a crowded pop landscape. Playful, a little naughty, and full of heart, this debut brims with spirited pop gems that stick in the brain long after the album is finished. Blending the youthful Gen-Z delivery of Olivia Rodrigo, the best-friend-approachability of Taylor Swift, and the songcraft of Maggie Rogers, Roan is the main draw here, taking whatever producer Dan Nigro (Kylie, Rodrigo, Caroline Polachek) throws at her and making it irresistible. Opener "Femininomenon" perfectly captures the album's ethos: transforming from a sweet, string-laden ballad into a pulse-pounding empowerment anthem, it's punctuated with a mid-song pep talk and hilariously escalating adlibs demanding a "fucking beat." From there, it's a nonstop flood of catchy, synth-backed anthems that could lay waste to mainstream radio if given the chance. The playfully horny "Red Wine Supernova" rides a bubbly beat, Roan's pure vocals, and girl gang background vocals that boost energy, while the funky strut of the confident, boyfriend-stealing "After Midnight" turns the lights down low as she purrs that "everything good happens after midnight." Taking Taylor's Midnights hit one step further, Roan takes aim at an ex on the sardonic, synth-laden "My Kink Is Karma," where she finds pleasure in the little things like watching them "ruin [their] life... losing [their] mind... [and] crashing [their] car." There's a handful of delicate ballads ("Coffee," "Casual," "Picture You," "Kaleidoscope") peppered amongst the pogo-bounce singalongs ("HOT TO GO!" and early hit "Pink Pony Club") that offer a few moments of rest while the party continues. On an album packed with highlights, standouts include the '80s-synth throwback "Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl" -- a cowbell-laden, late night party saga that explodes with one of the most rousing choruses on Midwest Princess -- and the closer, "Guilty Pleasure," which mirrors the opening track's quiet-to-loud approach, morphing from warm dreampop into pulsing electro-pop. Bold and fearless, Chappell Roan's The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is the best kind of pop album: capturing a generational zeitgeist and introducing the world to a refreshing new voice that can hopefully stand the test of time and a fickle industry.© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

How to better a record like Revolver? Sign off another by the name of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. For many, this is truly the greatest pop and rock music of all time, if not one of the most significant works of art in popular culture from the second half of the twentieth century... After discovering the endless possibilities offered to them in the recording studio, John, Paul, George and Ringo continue their crazy musical experiments. More than ever considered as the ‘fifth Beatle’, producer George Martin runs out a magic carpet of discoveries that would go on to influence the future of pop. When this eighth studio album is released in June 1967, the era is one that has embraced the all-out psychedelic, and this concept album is a true hallucinatory trip (not only for Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds). Like the patchwork of his mythical pocket, Sergeant Pepper's journeys through pure pop, manly rock'n'roll, totally trippy sequences (to near worldly scales), retro songs of nursery rhymes, animal noises and even classical music! On the composition side, the duo of Lennon/McCartney is at the top of its game, delivering new songs that are still influential today. ©MZ/Qobuz, Translation/BM

A decade after their last album and the inescapable "I Love It" (featuring Charli XCX)—a song that pop culture still can't quit—the Swedish electropop duo Icona Pop are back. Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo had coasted on the endless party circuit of festival and dance celeb gigs for years, until the pandemic actually brought the party to an end. "Initially, we were devastated to leave LA and the whole system we had built there. Suddenly, we were in Sweden, and we felt alone. In retrospect, I'm very happy we were there, but there was a lot of crying at first," the pair said in a statement. But they regrouped "and thought 'what the fuck are we going to do now?' Eclectic, fun, hard, pop, deep, mainstream, catchy, weird, late at night, early in the morning—always with a tear in the corner of the eye and a smile on our face." That freedom and time to explore led them in a wild variety of directions. Chill "Fall In Love," with its catchy "fa-la-la-la in love" line, fits with Dua Lipa's sophisticated modern disco sound. "Need You" mixes R&B influence with a hard, metallic edge and throbbing undercurrent. "Loving You Ain't Easy" relies on cool-breeze piano and a skittish rhythm for its expression of naked desire. Hjelt and Jawo play with burbling pop on "Stockholm at Night" and "Feels In My Body," while "Desire" packs in deep house beats and features Joel Corry and Rain Radio. It's just one of many collabs, along with "I Want You" with EDM duo Galantis, the fun-house vibe of "Off of My Mind" with Vize, and kinetic "Shit We Do for Love" featuring longtime writing partner Yaeger. The star turn, though, is "You're Free," a rework of Ultra Naté's 25-year-old "Free" whose super powered vocals and pleasure-seeking focus perfectly jibes with Icona Pop's MO: "Yeah, I just wanna dance right now till my heels wear out!" And while "Where Do We Go From Here" is not as explosive as "I Love It," it still fizzes and pops and delivers a glorious build. But the wildest moments come in the form of "Stick Your Tongue Out"—a pulsing Peaches-esque banger that orders "lick it, lick it"—and closer "Spa," with guest stars Sofi Tukker. With rocking guitar and goofball self-care lyrics, it is pure camp: "Put some cukes on my eyes/ Tell me, is this paradise?" Tucker Halpern deadpans, while the girls declare: "I'm done with the club/ Just take me to the spa/ 'Cause I wanna feel the sweat/ From the steam room and the sauna." Why not? © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

Morgan Wade has not only conquered the sophomore slump; the music and her raspy Virginia twang sound better than ever. "80s Movie" is redolent of the kind of nostalgia Eric Church does so well, referencing cassette tapes and small-town water towers, When Harry Met Sally and Dirty Dancing, and remembering boyfriends with "Tom Cruise hair." And, as with Church, it's as inspired by '80s guitar rock as classic '80s country. But there are plenty of '90s touchstones, too, including the folksy jangle of "Roman Candle" and smoky "Outrun." "Alanis," with its jittering guitar, pays tribute to Alanis Morisette and "You Oughta Know," which came out the year Wade was born. (She performed that song with Morissette and other country singers at the 2023 CMT Awards.) "Alanis, lived out your pain through sweet profanity … Alanis, how did you ever keep your sanity?" Wade sings, in awe of the way Morisette would "scream on the stage and let out the rage 'til the lights go dark." Appropriately, the song ends with Alanis-style harmonica. There's a Sheryl Crow open-mic vibe "Phantom Feelings," a Julia Michaels co-write, with Wade hitting a growl as she gets nostalgic about being "young and … dumb" and "getting drunk at a bar downtown quoting Sylvia Plath." There's also a longing for being 16 and carefree, before knowing "the world was so damn mean," on "Losers Like Me," which rips with juke-joint piano and siren-wail guitar. "We said we wouldn't get jobs and we'd burn our bras/ We wouldn't turn out nothing like our moms/ I didn't/ But I wish I did," Wade reckons. Inevitably, the songs on this record will be picked over for clues to Wade's nebulous relationship with Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards, a favorite topic of internet gossip. Power ballad "Guns and Roses" should fuel the flames: "Chasing after you feels a little dangerous/ I could give it all, but it never is enough/ Just when I think we're friends/ All of your words turn to lead/ Planting flowers in my head/ Aiming for love, hitting me instead." And "27 Club," a bittersweet-sounding acoustic number, is sure to spur guessing games, as Wade sings about "laying in the bed at the Chateau/ With someone I saw on TV but barely even know" and being "out in LA with a Beverly Hills hottie/ The kind that wants to go and sniff the pills off my body." It builds and the guitars rock out, but Wade, who proudly wears her sobriety, is sometimes left "feeling so sad/ I could reach for the gun/ I could reach for the bottle/ But it's great/ I'm getting paid ... I didn't make the 27 club/ I'm 28." Glad she's here. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

Many observers were prepared to write off the B-52's after the release of Bouncing Off the Satellites. Granted, the album was completed in the wake of Ricky Wilson's death, but the group appeared bereft of new musical ideas and were sounding rather stale. In other words, the last thing anyone expected was a first-class return to form, which is what they got with Cosmic Thing. Working with producers Don Was and Nile Rodgers, the B-52's updated their sound with shiny new surfaces and deep, funky grooves -- it was the same basic pattern as before, only refurbished and contemporized. Just as importantly, they had their best set of songs since at least Wild Planet, possibly since their debut. "Cosmic Thing" and "Channel Z" were great up-tempo rockers; "Roam" had a groovy beat blessed with a great Cindy Wilson vocal; and "Deadbeat Club" was one of their rare successful reflective numbers. Then there was "Love Shack," an irresistible dance number with delightfully silly lyrics and hooks as big as a whale that unbelievably gave the group a long-awaited Top Ten hit. The thing is, Cosmic Thing would already have been considered a triumphant return without its commercial success. The big sales were just the icing on the cake.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo